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This project will build a comprehensive framework for understanding how electromagnetic fields, in particular their low energy non-thermal effects, can synthesize far-from-equilibrium materials, such as mixtures of amorphous and crystalline oxides, disordered glass-like alloys, and oxide-polymer composites with tailored structures and properties. Such processes and materials have widespread appeal in Air Force relevant technologies for structurally integrated energy conversion, actuators, and sensors, information storage, optoelectronics, solid-state refrigeration. The non-thermal effects of electromagnetic fields can produce far-from equilibrium outcomes, which cannot be achieved through conventional processing. For instance, the low temperature (~ 150 o C) crystallization of ceramic oxide (e.g., anatase TiO2) thin films by microwave radiation is a potential non-thermal effect, as conventional synthetic routes even under the same temperature profile cannot reproduce the results. The novelty of my approach to study non-thermal effects lies in using thin film growth experiments in which field interactions can be selectively localized to a desired region inside the reaction vessel (e.g. the substrate). Such experiments can systematically examine the effects of field intensity, temperatures, and reaction mechanisms at a specific point instead of in the bulk of the solution.